


So What Now?

by TatteredTeddy



Category: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-18 02:28:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28735734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TatteredTeddy/pseuds/TatteredTeddy
Summary: Albert and Kali Wesker are figuring out what life will be like like after Albert’s villainous career has crashed and burned for good.
Relationships: Albert Wesker/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 4





	So What Now?

The heavy blanket of silence brought on by the setting sun is broken by my phone ringing. I snap up out of my seat, grabbing the phone and answering it before even putting it to my ear just to shut off the ringtone. If there must be any noise in here, I’d prefer it to be me speaking and not that stupidly repetitive ringtone I need to change someday.  
  
“Hey, what’s going on? ...mhm, yeah, I’m okay. ...It’s been healing pretty well. Albert’s doing alright too. Just graduated from physical therapy. …Heh, yeah, no, he was surprisingly civil during therapy. It’s not really that bad. ...Tell David I say hi. He doesn’t call all that often. He mostly texts. …Yeah, yeah, I know. ...Mhm. Okay. Bye-bye.”  
  
I set my phone down on the couch beside me. It was Kevin again, checking in to make sure I was alright. I hadn’t come to see him in a while. I could hear David grumbling in the background about how he should get to talk to me too, how just because I’m not his sister doesn’t mean he can’t say hello for just a second. It’s heartwarming to know they care, even if they’re still acting like a pair of dogs snapping at each other on their taut leashes. At least I have something like a family out there.  
  
A short moment of silence passes between me and Albert once I set my phone down. We both have something to say, but we don’t know how to say it. There’s just one big question that we haven’t wanted to face quite yet. But today… I figure, someone might as well ask it, and that someone might as well be me. I sigh and clasp my hands together in my lap as I prepare to say what we’ve both been asking ourselves for a while.  
  
“...so what do we do now?”  
  
Albert looks over at me with a tinge of sadness in his eyes. I’ve never seen him look sad before. “What do you mean, dear?”  
  
“Everything’s finally blown over. You made it out alive. The world’s still trying to figure itself out. So what happens next?” I ask. “Where… where do we go from here?”  
  
“What happens next… I’m not sure about that. I haven’t had the time to think of any answers. Recovery from such an incident takes more time than you’d think. I’d usually have the answers for you, but not today, I’m afraid.”  
  
I silently nod my head as if I’ve been given a piece of ancient wisdom. I’d spent the whole time Albert was in the hospital worrying about him, wishing I could visit him more often and that this didn’t have to happen. I wasn’t hurt as badly as he was— enough that the BSAA took him off their list of concerns after seriously believing that he was dead for about two weeks— but I still had some physical and emotional wounds that I had to take time to heal. My brother was the only person I let in for quite a while. He’d seen both sides of the story, and he still chose to treat me as a human being, and not as a pest to be removed like the treatment I’d had to deal with from Chris. David even came to visit once too. He didn’t know what to say, since he didn’t trust Albert around me for quite a long time, but he wanted to make sure I was holding up alright anyway. I think Albert knew how hard I took all of this. I tried to hide it, but who wouldn’t be a wreck in that situation, watching the world fall apart in front of you and then almost losing the love of your life?  
  
“Well… maybe you don’t need to set such a high standard for yourself anymore, like you did with Uroboros,” I finally say, my voice hushed so not to ruin the sad yet peaceful quiet surrounding us.  
  
“And what do you mean by that, dear?”  
  
“I mean… maybe, when you decide to go back to your work, don’t go straight to taking over the world. If there’s a high reward for something, there’s probably a high risk too.” I lean in closer to him, resting my head on his shoulder. I’d missed feeling his warmth against my usually quite cold skin, sleeping curled up against him to steal some of the heat he seems to radiate when we’re under the covers together. Knowing the bed that my love was sleeping in for such a long time was a hospital bed, uncomfortable and incompetently blanketed unlike the bed we share at home, always made me worry about him. “Take smaller steps this time,” I say softly. “And maybe… you might not like this suggestion, but maybe try something with a little less of a death toll. Alright? I know you have the brains to pull off anything you put your mind to.”  
  
“I’ll try, dear. Going back to my research again will be a consideration for another day. I’m sure all of its contents are just fine being left unattended for now.” He leans forward, staring down at the floor. He doesn’t keep his sunglasses on when it’s just the two of us at home, so I can see his eyelids drooping just a bit over his bright red irises, like he’s struggling to keep his eyes open. For someone with such a passion for his work, it must be nearly impossible to stay away from the lab, especially given his situation. But in order to recover physically and mentally, a little distance from work and a lot of rest will be necessary.  
  
“I’m sure it won’t be hard. I bet there are a lot of new developments in your field that you can jump right into. And you could go back and work with some of your old coworkers, you know?” I say almost too cheerfully. I wonder if he can tell that I’m trying to lighten his mood, even though I’m quite tired myself. Spending so long in a state of constant stress tires you out, even long after the events have blown over.  
  
“I’m afraid my reputation will precede me after everything I’ve done.” His eyes quickly glance toward me, a flash of bright red curiosity, and then satisfaction, like he needed to recharge by looking at me.  
  
“Well, what kind of reputation do you think you have?” I ask.  
  
“After the failure of Uroboros… my colleagues might think of me as a failure too. And of course, I’ve been painted as the villain of the story, with that idiot Chris as the hero.”  
  
“Well, I think you’re very ambitious, and you shouldn’t worry so much about failing. Everyone fails! I bet even the most famous scientists on earth failed a million times before making their big breakthroughs. I’m sure Madame Curie failed more times than you have.” I lean in closer to him, hovering only inches away from his lips and maybe staring at them just a little too much. “Your reputation as a super-smart science genius with a million great ideas is what precedes you in my eyes.”  
  
He sighs and shakes his head. “You flatter me, Kali. I may just take your suggestion, since you’ve had your head in the right place on many other decisions you’ve made. Like choosing me, for example.”  
  
I teasingly nudge his shoulder with my forehead. “Well, come on, who wouldn’t?”  
  
“Very many people would not choose me, my love. I’m sure it’d take a bit too long to list the enemies I’ve made.” He pats my head in a manner that one might find condescending if they didn’t know Albert and his little ways of showing his love, despite that smug exterior of his.  
  
“Well, true. I assume Chris would be on the top of that list. You… you know how much he hated me, you know… pre-volcano, right?” I fidget in my seat, knowing that telling him now as opposed to months before now is probably a bad idea. Possibly one of my worst.  
  
Albert nods his head affirmatively. He doesn’t seem to catch my drift so quickly. “Yes, I do. I know a bit too much, seeing as though he quite liked to shove it in my face how much he antagonized you.”  
  
“Well… I never actually showed you this, did I?” I pull back my hair on one side, revealing a fairly new-looking scar barely hidden by my hairline. “Chris did this to me. He pushed me away after I kept telling him that I wouldn’t give up any information about Uroboros, and I stumbled and lost my balance. I hit my head on the ground when I landed. I don’t think I ever had a concussion, but I did get this. I tried to clean up the bleeding before you could find out… because I didn’t want you to be mad when you saw it.”  
  
“Now, why would I be mad at you for an injury someone else gave you?” he asks. “It’s not your fault.”  
  
“That’s not what I was worried about. I thought you’d get really mad that Chris did that to me, and I didn’t want to deal with any more anger after, you know… how angry he was at me.” I stare down at my hands, which are clasped together in my lap. “I dunno…”  
  
“My dear, if you’re implying that I ever took out any of my anger on you, I’m sorry,” he says quietly, almost ashamedly. The great Albert Wesker is never ashamed of anything. The volcano disaster and the ensuing hospital stay must have taken a chunk out of his endlessly growing ego.  
  
“No, no, you never took it out on me. Around me, maybe. But not on me. You never did anything to hurt me. If you did, you would have known. I make that stuff known pretty clearly. I can guarantee, you never did anything bad toward me.” I lean over to him and kiss his cheek. “Maybe a little super-villainous, but you never hurt me. Physically or emotionally.”  
  
“I’m glad. I always feel as if you’re so fragile… compared to the strength I’ve given myself with my experiments, I feel as if the slightest touch could break you,” he confesses. “I would never hurt you purposefully. You mean the world to me. And after all my plans have come crashing down around me… what do I have left, except for my dear Kali?”  
  
“You have so much more in this world. So much more that's just waiting for us. Like if I decide to get a job at a counseling center, and if you feel like you can get back to your work after some recovery time, we can start over together. As if the Uroboros disaster never happened. We can just be… normal. Maybe we could get a cat. Name it after some sciencey thing from one of our fields of study that the other wouldn’t understand.” I laugh at the thought of naming a cat after some famous psychologist. As most of us who have studied psychology are, I detest most of the people I’ve studied in my classes. “Maybe something you’ve studied? Psychology doesn’t lend itself very well to cat names.”  
  
“I wouldn’t know. But I’ll think about a good name. You grew up with a black cat, didn’t you?”  
  
“Heh. Yeah. Her name was Cleo-paw-tra.” I smile at the thought of that weird little cat who I loved with all my heart. “I miss that sweetie.”  
  
“I’ve always found black cats fascinating. Symbols of bad fortune that are loved by so many people anyway…” he wonders out loud. “How does that work in people’s minds?”  
  
“It’s like me in a way,” I giggle. “Most people don’t keep me around because I don’t exactly bring the best luck to others, but somehow you knew you were the one who had to pick me up and take me with you.”  
  
“You may be right, but you’re no symbol of misfortune. You’ve survived so much by my side, and now the two of us have the rest of our lives to go without having to worry about surviving.”  
  
He leans in and presses a soft, chaste kiss to my lips, and a rush of pure comfort overtakes me. I missed the feeling of his kisses more than anything while he was hospitalized. It’s like my life force is finally returning to my body, from just one little kiss. “I know you won’t let me go back to the same studies I was working on before, so I may just test out your idea of having a normal life.”  
  
“Yeah. Try it. I think you’ll like it a little more than you’d expect,” I say with a soft smile. “If normal is too strange for you, well, then… you have the rest of your life to get used to it.”


End file.
